Pas de Trois II
by Elementary Magpie
Summary: Another in a series of independent character sketches exploring the question: Where is the center of gravity in a trio?


**Disclaimer**: I do not own Samurai Champloo or intend to derive any monetary gain from this fan fiction.

**Setting**: Late series, implied spoilers for 24-26.

**Summary**: Another in a series of independent character sketches exploring the question: Where is the center of gravity in a trio?

**Author's Note**: Thanks to Mauzkateer, whose review question "are you thinking of doing more?" for _Pas de Trois_ got me thinking about other ways to look at this trio.

**Pas de Trois II**

**by Elementary Magpie**

When Fuu behaves as if she thinks she's in charge of their little expedition _and orders them around_, Mugen and Jin would like to put her in her place. But they aren't precisely sure what that is. She isn't quite a respectable woman. She isn't remotely a whore.

Mugen would like to think of her as a little sister, but no girl he grew up with was ever such a pernicious self-righteous irritating bossy little flirt. Jin would like to think of her as a little sister, but he isn't really certain what one of them is like.

Neither of them can remember their mothers.

So at first Mugen talks to her like the dog he's never wanted, but after a while finds that he's talking to her like he's talking to himself. And at first Jin doesn't talk to her at all, but after a while finds that he's talking to her like he's talking to a person. They both suspect that this might be the same thing as talking to a friend.

And so when Fuu orders them around, they obey her. But they do it in the most irritating way possible.

It's a bond between them.

They are both grateful that she keeps insisting they not kill one another just yet, though neither of them would ever admit that out loud.

When Fuu tells Jin that she expects he'll behave better than that lowlife criminal, Mugen hates her a little, because it hurts. When Fuu tells Mugen that she can't believe what a pompous idiot dojo training makes you, Jin hates her a little more.

So Mugen does his best to flaunt his vices because he knows she hates that. And Jin does his best to pretend he's ignoring her existence because he knows she hates that too. It's a bond between them.

When Fuu sends them away, Mugen and Jin no longer pretend that it's going to be permanent. They are beginning to believe that she's impossible to lose. When they leave her now, it's only to see how happy she is when they come back -- even if she only tells them that through a blistering scold.

Not that either of them would ever admit this out loud.

Sometimes, Mugen thinks that her tits aren't really all that small, and that he'd like to see how she'd behave without her kimono on. Sometimes Jin thinks this as well.

Sometimes, when Jin is watching for an opening against yet another expert assassin unaccountably interested in a fifteen-year-old girl, he suspects that he's finally found a master whom he's willing to risk his life for.

Sometimes, when Mugen is cutting his way through whatever pack of criminals that stupid girl has managed to get herself kidnapped by this time, he realizes that he would gladly die for the bitch.

o o o

When Fuu behaves towards Mugen and Jin as if she thinks she's in charge of their little expedition, _and they obey her_, she marvels once again at how much a little determination can help you get away with.

When they take their revenge, she retaliates. She knows exactly how to pitch her voice to hurt a hangover.

When Mugen and Jin forget the real purpose of their journey in the absorbing fun of a good fight, Fuu wades in to break it up as if she actually has the right to have a say in the matter. Inside, she wonders if little boys ever grow up.

When Mugen and Jin leave her, she wants to cut out their hearts and broil them on a skewer so that they know how it feels. When they return, she wants to bandage their wounds and comb their hair and shake them down for loose change.

When they fight for her, she is terrified. And feels very, very safe.

Sometimes, at night, when Mugen drapes himself across the floor and Jin leans cross-legged against the wall, Fuu thinks that she might be ready for a lover. But she's afraid that Mugen would accidentally hurt her, and Jin would only be on loan from a woman in a temple.

Sometimes, when Fuu watches the slumped red back and the straight blue one endlessly receding ahead of her on the road, she feels that she could die for them. But she's more and more afraid that the opposite is going to come true.

She's beginning to think that it's time to let them go.

o o o o

End.


End file.
